29 Mar 2025 - Ben Tre And Sailing Into Saigon
Last day of the Mekong Panda cruise. I was still full of cold when I woke up and continued to be so all day, so life was a bit problematic.
We passed through this fertile farming region, with half of Vietnam's rice production coming from the Mekong Delta..
After Tai Chi and breakfast we disembarked at 8:30 am into a Sanpan at Ben Tra, it took us to a location about 30 minutes away. Here we walked for a mile or so through jungle on a concrete path beside narrow streams with houses scattered around. We then got into a six seater tuk tuk which took us to a coconut candy enterprise where the guide tried to show us various stages of the process and we were given a piece of candy which was just like toffee and pretty revolting. But several people bought some and even tried wrapping the individual sweets, like the girls there.
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From here we walked through more jungle and boarded a four seater rowing boat which took us for 15 minutes through very narrow waterways with trees overhead: this was quite idyllic. On disembarking. More walking and came across fighting cocks in their cages. Eventually we got into the tuk tuks again and went to a place where we were served honey tea and fresh fruit before boarding the sampan for another 30 minute trip back to the boat.
Due to the low tide The boarding of the sampan here was made very difficult as the guide did not seem to wish to use his steps and wanted everyone to sit down on a 2 inch cushion and then swing their legs onto the boat but as oldies most of us could not do this and Daisy hurt herself considerably trying to do this. The guide really was useless and bossy to boot. All he cared about was getting us all to remember to pick up our bags, sunglasses, suncream, and hats, mobile phones etc before we left every single place.
Once back on the boat there was a musical performance by a local group Which was quite sweet. It was followed by audience participation yet again.
After lunch, I had a siesta and did most of the packing. In the afternoon we sailed through the Cho Gao Canal toward Saigon. The Cho Gao Canal is a vital waterway link for the transportation of goods to and from the city, which was constructed in 1876 by the French and offers a fascinating insight to life along the water. Chris missed most of this as she was asleep and had missed the two hours when the boat was moving down a narrow canal which was far more scenic than the wide Mekong that we then got into.
The Cho Gao canal is one of the arterial channels connecting Tien Giang with Saigon and the provinces in the Mekong Delta. The total length of the canal is 28.6km. Since 2005, transportation on the Cho Gao canal has had large developments in traffic and freight load. Statistics show that per day about 1,400 vessels with freight loads circulate on the canal and during peak days traffic can reach 1,800 vessels per day. Under these circumstances, traffic congestion and incidents from collisions, boats and barge flip-over has occurred frequently. In addition, erosions on the banks of the canal has also been occurring more frequently, causing significant loss in properties. The ships captains seem to play a game of chicken with boats moving in the opposite direction - once I thought we were going to hit another ship, but it missed us by inches,
In the evening we sailed into central Saigon and enjoy the stunning skyline over dinner.
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The evening cocktail was quite revolting and we then had a crew presentation and yet more audience participation in dancing with them and rock ‘n’ roll. We joined the other 16 guests for dinner to appear to be social but ended up just having the Americans to talk to and the lady was completely and utterly drunk so that was not a good experience. But we left early to finish the packing and went back up on deck with a coffee as we entered Saigon.